Tool for loading reactor tubes

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a tool that can be used to load catalyst into a chemical reactor. In a preferred embodiment, the tool may also be used to measure the outage in the reactor tube. Also in a preferred embodiment, the tool provides a way to prevent dust from accumulating on the upper tube sheet of the reactor while loading catalyst into the reactor tubes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to chemical reactors, and, inparticular, to a device for loading the tubes of chemical reactors withcatalyst.

[0002] In the past, many different types of devices have been used toassist in loading catalyst into reactor tubes. For example, varioussleeves, templates, and vibrating machines have been used. Then, oncethe catalyst has been loaded, a stick is inserted into each tube tomeasure the distance from the top of the catalyst to the top of thereactor tube (the outage) to see whether that space or outage is withinthe desired range. If the outage is too large, additional catalyst isloaded and the outage is measured again. If the outage is too small,catalyst is vacuumed out of the tube and the outage is measured again.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0003] The present invention provides a loading sleeve for loadingcatalyst into a reactor tube. The loading sleeve has an upper flange,which rests on the upper tube sheet of the reactor, and a tubeprojecting downwardly from the flange into the reactor tube. Since thetube portion of the loading sleeve has a smaller diameter than thereactor tube, when the loading sleeve is filled with catalyst and isthen removed from the reactor tube, it leaves a gap or outage at the topof the reactor tube.

[0004] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the loadingsleeve also has some type of marking which can be used for checking theoutage. After the loading sleeve has been removed from the reactor tube,and the catalyst has settled into the reactor tube, the loading sleeveis again inserted into the reactor tube until it rests on the catalystin the reactor tube, with a portion of the loading sleeve projectingupwardly, out of the reactor tube. By checking the markings on theportion of the loading sleeve projecting out of the reactor tube, aperson can see whether the tube has been loaded to a height that iswithin the desired loading specifications. This eliminates the need fora separate testing tool.

[0005] Also in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, theflanges of the loading sleeves may be made large enough that theyoverlap each other. This helps prevent dust from getting in between theloading sleeves.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006]FIG. 1 is a broken-away section view through the upper portion ofa chemical reactor, with loading sleeves of the present inventioninserted into the reactor tubes;

[0007]FIG. 2 is a top view of a portion of the reactor of FIG. 2;

[0008]FIG. 3 is an enlarged top view of one of the reactor tubes of FIG.1;

[0009]FIG. 4 is a section view through an alternative embodiment of aloading sleeve;

[0010]FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing catalyst being loaded into thereactor tube through the loading sleeve of FIG. 1;

[0011]FIG. 6 is a side view of the loading sleeve of FIG. 4;

[0012]FIG. 7 is a side view of the loading sleeve of FIG. 5;

[0013]FIG. 8 is a side view of another alternative embodiment of aloading sleeve;

[0014]FIG. 9 is an enlarged view of the upper portion of the loadingsleeve of FIG. 8;

[0015]FIG. 10 is a top view of the loading sleeve of FIG. 8;

[0016]FIG. 11 is a top view of a reactor using another alternativeembodiment of a loading sleeve; and

[0017]FIG. 12 is a top view of a reactor using the same loading sleeveas FIG. 11 but with the loading sleeves arranged in a different way.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0018]FIG. 1 is a section view through a portion of a chemical reactor.The reactor includes an upper tube sheet 10 and a lower tube sheet (notshown), which is parallel to the upper tube sheet 10. A plurality ofreactor tubes 12 extends downwardly from the upper tube sheet 10 to thelower tube sheet. The upper and lower tube sheets have openings 14aligned with the tubes 12. In this view, loading sleeves 16 have beeninserted into the reactor tubes 12. Each of the loading sleeves 16includes an upper flange portion 18, which rests on the upper tube sheet10, and a downwardly-extending tubular sleeve portion 20, which extendsinto its respective reactor tube 12. The flange 18 defines a centralopening 22, which opens into the inside of the tubular sleeve portion20. In this embodiment, the tubular sleeve 20 has a constant diameter,and the opening 22 has a constant diameter that is smaller than theinside diameter of the tubular sleeve 20. The size of the opening 22depends upon the size and shape of catalyst to be used and is usuallyjust a bit larger than the catalyst so that the catalyst enters into theloading sleeve 16 one piece at a time.

[0019]FIG. 2 is a top view showing a plurality of the loading sleeves 16inserted into a plurality of adjacent reactor tubes 12. In this view, itcan be seen that the tubular sleeves 20 and flanges 18 have a circularcross-sectional shape, which is preferred. However, other shapes couldalso be used. FIG. 3 is an enlarged top view of one of the loadingsleeves 16 in its respective tube 12. The outside diameter of thedownwardly-projecting tubular sleeve 20 is small enough to fit easilyinto the reactor tube 12, and the flange 18 is large enough to preventthe loading sleeve 16 from falling through the opening 14 into thereactor tube 12.

[0020]FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing the loading sleeve 16 beingused to load catalyst into the reactor tube 12. In this view, thecatalyst 30 is shown as being spherical, but it could be of variousshapes. Catalyst frequently has a cylindrical shape, for example. Theloading sleeve 16 is inserted into the reactor tube 12 until the flange18 rests on the upper tube sheet 10. Then catalyst 30 is insertedthrough the opening 22 in the flange 18. Typically the catalyst 30 isinserted by hand or broom massage, but other methods may also be used.The catalyst 30 falls through the loading sleeve 16 and into the reactortube 12, filling the reactor tube 12 from the bottom up. Eventually, thecatalyst 30 also fills the interior of the loading sleeve 16, as shownin this view.

[0021] Once several of the loading sleeves 16 are filled with catalyst30, they are then completely removed from the reactor tube 12. Theloading sleeves 16 may have to be tapped in order to ensure that all ofthe catalyst 30 falls out of the sleeve 16 and remains in its respectivereactor tube 12. Since the volume inside the loading sleeve 16 is lessthan the volume of the surrounding portion of the reactor tube 12, whenthe loading sleeve 16 is removed, the catalyst 30 that was in theloading sleeve 12 falls downwardly to fill the larger diameter reactortube 12, leaving a gap or outage 32 from the top of the catalyst 30 tothe top of the tube sheet 10, as shown in FIG. 7. The relative insidediameters of the loading sleeve and the reactor tube may be selected toachieve the desired outage 32 when the loading sleeve is removed fromthe reactor tube.

[0022] After the loading sleeve 16 has been removed from the reactortube and the catalyst 30 has settled to form the outage 32, the loadingsleeve 16 is again inserted into the reactor tube 12, as shown in FIG.7. This time, the catalyst 30 prevents the loading sleeve from beinginserted all the way into the reactor tube 12. Instead, the loadingsleeve 16 can only be inserted the distance of the outage 32, at whichpoint it is prevented by the catalyst 30 from being inserted anyfurther.

[0023] There are graduated markings 34 on the sleeve 16, which are thenused to determine whether the catalyst 30 has been loaded to the correctoutage. The markings 34 preferably are on the outer surface of thesleeve 16. The markings may be of various types. There may be aplurality of graduated markings at various heights, as shown in FIG. 7,which may indicate the distance of the marking above the bottom of thesleeve 16, or the bottommost marking may indicate a height of “0” andthe other markings indicate their height above the “0” mark, forexample. Or there may be a group of markings that say “In spec” andmarkings above and below those that say “out of spec”, or one section ofthe sleeve may be marked in green or another preferred color, indicatingthe correct outage range, and sections above and below that section maybe marked in another color, such as red, to indicate that they areoutside of the specified outage range. Other similar indicators may beused so that a person inserting the loading sleeve back into the reactortube can determine the dimension of the outage 32, or whether the outage32 is within a predetermined, specified range.

[0024] Thus, with a single tool, a worker may both install the catalystand then check the catalyst height to be sure the gap 32 above thecatalyst is within a desired range. If the gap 32 is too large, theworker may insert additional catalyst and check again. If the gap 32 istoo small, the worker may vacuum out some catalyst, check again, and addcatalyst as needed. By providing both the loading function and themeasuring function in a single tool, the worker does not have to carrytwo separate tools for performing these two functions.

[0025]FIGS. 4 and 6 show an alternative embodiment of a loading sleeve116. In this embodiment, the opening 122 through the upper flange istapered, having a smaller diameter at the top and a lower diameter atthe bottom. This embodiment also differs from the first embodiment inthat, instead of having a plurality of graduations on the tube, thisembodiment has a single wide band indicating positions of the loadingsleeve 116 at which the outage 32 would be within the desired range. Ifthe entire band 134 is below the upper tube sheet 10 and cannot be seen,then the person measuring the outage knows that the outage 32 is toolarge and more catalyst should be added. If the person can see theentire band 134, including its bottom edge, extending above the uppertube sheet 10, then he knows that the outage 32 is too small, and somecatalyst should be removed. If only a portion of the band 134 projectsabove the upper tube sheet 10, the person knows that the outage 32 iswithin the desired specified range.

[0026]FIGS. 8-10 show a second alternative embodiment of a loadingsleeve 216. In this embodiment, the downwardly projecting tubular sleeveportion 220 does not have a constant diameter. Instead, its upperportion is tapered, like a funnel, having a larger diameter at the topand tapering to a smaller diameter. Then, the rest of the tubularportion 220 has a constant diameter which is the same as the smallerdiameter of the tapered portion. This loading sleeve 216 has a pluralityof graduations 234, which indicate the height of the graduation abovethe bottom of the tubular sleeve 216. With this device, the person willobtain an actual reading of the outage dimension 32 rather than just anindication of whether it is in or out of a pre-specified range.

[0027]FIGS. 11 and 12 show another alternative embodiment of a loadingsleeve 316 made in accordance with the present invention. This loadingsleeve 316 is identical to the sleeve 16 of FIGS. 1-3, except that theflange portion 318 has a larger diameter, so that the flange portions318 of adjacent loading sleeves 316 overlap each other. The flangeportions 318 have a diameter that is large enough to ensure a completeoverlap of the adjacent flanges, so that none of the upper tube sheet 10between the loading sleeves 316 is exposed, and yet small enough thatthe flanges 318 do not cover the adjacent openings 322.

[0028]FIG. 11 shows one arrangement of these large-flanged loadingsleeves 316, in which the person begins inserting the sleeves 316 at oneend of the reactor and then just overlaps subsequent rows of flanges 318over the previous rows similar to fish scales. It should be noted thatthe sleeves 316 are made of a somewhat flexible material, such asplastic, so all the flanges 318 are close to the surface of the uppertube sheet 10.

[0029]FIG. 12 shows the same large-flanged loading sleeves 316 as inFIG. 11, except they have been inserted in a different order, with theflanges of a first set of rows (say the odd-numbered rows) down, incontact with the upper tube sheet 10 and the flanges of a second set ofrows (say the even-numbered rows) resting on the flanges 318 of thefirst set of rows. In both the arrangement of FIG. 11 and thearrangement of FIG. 12, the flanges 318 overlap to prevent dust fromsettling down into positions on the upper tube sheet 10 between theloading sleeves. With these arrangements, the dust may be swept off orvacuumed off very readily.

[0030] It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that modificationsmay be made to the embodiments described above without departing fromthe scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device for loading a chemical reactor tube withcatalyst and for checking the height of the catalyst within the reactortube after loading, comprising: an upper flange portion defining anopening; a tubular sleeve portion member having a top and a bottom,wherein the top is adjoined to said upper flange portion, so that theopening opens into said tubular sleeve portion, and wherein said tubularsleeve portion projects downwardly from said upper flange portion; andat least one marking on said tubular sleeve portion at a height abovethe bottom of said tubular sleeve portion.
 2. A device for loading achemical reactor tube as recited in claim 1, and further comprising aplurality of graduated markings at various heights on said tubularmember.
 3. A device for loading a chemical reactor tube as recited inclaim 1, and further comprising a wide band marking on said tubularmember indicating a range of desired outage dimensions.
 4. A device forloading a chemical reactor tube as recited in claim 1, wherein thediameter of said opening is smaller than the diameter of said tubularsleeve portion.
 5. A device for loading a chemical reactor tube asrecited in claim 1, wherein said opening is tapered, having a smallerdiameter at the top than at the bottom.
 6. A method for loading achemical reactor tube with catalyst, comprising the steps of: insertinga loading sleeve into an open top of the reactor tube; then insertingcatalyst through said loading sleeve into said reactor tube; thenremoving the loading sleeve from the reactor tube; then re-inserting theloading sleeve into the reactor tube until the loading sleeve contactsthe catalyst; and then reading a marking on the loading sleeve which isvisible above the reactor tube when the loading sleeve has beenre-inserted in order to determine whether the outage above the catalystis within a desired range.
 7. A chemical reactor, comprising: an uppertube sheet; a plurality of reactor tubes projecting downwardly from saidupper tube sheet; a plurality of loading sleeves inserted intorespective reactor tubes, each of said loading sleeves including anupper flange portion and a downwardly projecting tubular sleeve portionsuspended from said upper flange portion, wherein adjacent upper flangeportions overlap each other.
 8. A chemical reactor as recited in claim7, wherein said upper flange portions overlap sufficiently to completelycover the portion of said upper tube sheet between their respectivereactor tubes.
 9. A chemical reactor as recited in claim 8, wherein saidupper flange portions are arranged in alternating groups, with a firstgroup of upper flange portions resting on the upper tube sheet and asecond group of upper flange portions resting on the first group ofupper flange portions.
 10. A chemical reactor as recited in claim 8,wherein said tubular sleeve portions include markings on their outersurfaces that can be used to measure the outage after the loadingsleeves are removed from their respective reactor tubes and thenreinserted into their respective reactor tubes.